The Disney Princesses Assemble: See the Actresses Reveal How They All Came Together for Upcoming 'Wreck-It Ralph' Sequel
Disney broke the Internet Friday at the D23 Expo when it showed footage for the upcoming film Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 that revealed the sequel would unite many of its most famous animated princesses.
Backstage, Yahoo Movies talked to a handful of the women behind the famous voices — Mandy Moore (Rapunzel in Tangled), Paige O’Hara (Belle in Beauty and the Beast), Anika Noni Rose (Tiana in The Princess and the Frog), Kelly Macdonald (Merida in Brave), Auli’i Cravalho (Moana), Jodi Benson (Ariel in The Little Mermaid), Irene Bedard (Pocahontas), and Linda Larkin (Jasmine in Aladdin) — about the unexpected revelation and how it all came together.
“We were just pitched like, ‘Hey, Wreck-It Ralph 2 is going to have a scene where they have all the Disney princesses in it, would you like to come and reprise Rapunzel?’ Obviously that was a no-brainer,” said Moore (watch above).
“I was so excited when I first heard it, and I couldn’t believe that nobody had ever thought to do this before,” gushed Larkin. “It’s such a brilliant idea to bring all of us together.”
The idea came to Ralph co-directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston as they were devising a sequence in which the film’s video-game-inhabiting hero (John C. Reilly) travels from the arcade into the interwebs, where he stumbles into the synergy-friendly confines of OhMyDisney.com. The filmmakers then pitched the concept to Disney Animation Studios and Pixar chief John Lasseter, who helped make it a reality.
Of particular note, the royal collective includes Moana, who insisted to the demigod Maui (Dwayne Johnson) that she’s no “princess” in last year’s box-office hit, a clear indicator that the Mouse House was trying to move on from what many have deemed an antiquated idea (Moana‘s filmmakers much preferred to call the seafaring teen a “heroine”). “I’ve known that I’m a Disney heroine,” Cravalho told us. “But now I actually get to be like a Disney princess.”
The story also officially brings Ralph’s partner in crime, the Sugar Rush-ruling Vanellope von Schweetz (voiced by Sarah Silverman), into the club. “Even to myself I was like, ‘I’m one of the Disney princesses!’ I couldn’t believe,” Silverman marveled before deadpanning: “A Jew.”
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 opens Nov. 21, 2018.
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